Placentia

City, Orange County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 92870, 92871

Bedroom town located in north county between Fullerton and Yorba Linda. Upscale middle class. Population 51,727. The 2000 census placed 31 percent of the town under age 21. Median age 33 years. Family town. www.mccormacks.com

School rankings range from 20th to 90th percentile but many schools are scoring in the 80^th and 90^th percentiles, top 20 percent in state. See Schools.

Served by Placentia-Yorba Linda School District, which also includes parts of Anaheim and Fullerton. In 2002, the district passed a $102 million bond to build four schools, including a middle school and an elementary school in Placentia, and renovate existing schools. The elementary school opened in 2004. The renovations, which included high-tech wiring and overhauled classrooms and bathrooms, were mostly completed in 2004 and 2005.

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New middle, under construction, is scheduled to open in 2009. It will relieve crowding at Kraemer Middle, now operating (with portables) at double its design capacity.

Three homicides in 2005, one each in 2004 and 2003, zero in 2002, one each in 2001 and 2000, two in 1999, three in 1998, zero in 1997, three in 1996 and for preceding years, one, three, three, two, two, one, three and one. See Crime.

In 2003, a freight train ran head-on into a commuter train. Two dead, 168 injured. Engineer said the sun got in his eyes, preventing him from seeing signal to slow down. www.mccormacks.com

Placentia started out the 1950s with about 400 housing units and the 1960s with 1,300 units. Then its boom came. In the 1960s, the town built 3,900 homes, townhouses and apartments, and in the following decade 5,100 housing units.

The pace slackened in the 1980s — 2,400 residential units in that decade, and in the 1990s, about the same, 2,500 units. Between 2000 and 2006, the city erected 1,076 units.

Lacking large empty parcels, Placentia is filling in its vacant lots. It used to be that the town gave its oil derricks, on the east side, some breathing room. Now, a few residents can look out their back windows into the next yard and see pumps rising and falling.

The state in 2008 counted 16,463 housing units, of which 9,746 were single detached, 2,065 single attached, 4,065 multiples and 587 mobile homes. Of the total units, owner occupied run 69 percent, renter 31 (census 2000).

Single-home is the dominant style, mainly three- and four-bedroom, a few five-bedroom. Tile, wood shingle or composite roofs. In the new sections, the designs tend to the vague Mediterranean: tinted stucco, red tiles. The slightly older models run to American suburban: one- and two-story, woodsy. www.mccormacks.com

The homes were built in distinct tracts that have evolved into neighborhoods with their own names: Briarwood, Sequoia Woods, etc.

At the risk of wearing out the word “nice” that’s just what they are. The lawns are mowed, the landscaping maintained, the trees have had a chance to grow and fill out, the utility lines, for the most part, were buried. Many cul-de-sacs. Some small new tracts are gated.

Walls draped with vines surround the tracts, accentuating the neighborhood identity. Traffic access to each tract is restricted to maybe six points, and many of these are decorated with planters — a pleasant touch. The overall design shunts arterial traffic around — not through — the tracts.

Near the civic plaza, you’ll run into the older housing, some of it dating back to the 1920s and 1930s, and down near South Richfield Road another older tract can be found. The city is thinking about revamping its downtown to bring in more people and build about 2,500 housing units. Arguments.

Highway 57 runs down the west side of town. Highway 91 touches the town on the south side. Both have been improved in recent years. Also improved, the Imperial Highway, really a parkway with access streets. www.mccormacks.com

Two golf courses, one a large country club subdivision, in or near the town, 13 parks and playgrounds, fishing at one park, two community centers, recreation facility, seniors’ center, two public pools, library. Historic ranch recalls old days when oranges reigned.

City and school district work together to amuse the kids and keep them out of mischief. Cal State university and community college located in nearby Fullerton. Many classes and activities. Regional mall (Nordstrom, Macys), bookstores, movies at Brea, a short drive. Tamale Festival.

• Train whistles or horns. Many residents find the noise irritating. About 60-70 freight trains rumble through the city each day. Trains also impede traffic along 11 key streets. On one research tour, we counted — and sat through — a train with 80 cars. City is getting money to build underpasses, which will also quiet trains, but it will be years before the job, estimated cost $500 million, is done. In the meantime, the city and the railroad are working on ways to reduce or eliminate the horn blowing. By mid 2007, things should be a lot quieter. Many arguments and court dealings over financing solutions to the train problems.

• In planning with ambitions to open in 2009, a Metrolink (commute rail) station in the downtown. City leaders hope it will boost downtown shopping.

• Congrats! El Dorado High School of Placentia in 2006 won a National Blue Ribbon for academic excellence. www.mccormacks.com

• The school district has three regular high schools: El Dorado and Valencia in Placentia and Esperanza in Anaheim (just outside Yorba Linda). In 2009, another high school will be opened in Yorba Linda. This might force changes in attendance boundaries.

• Placentia, like other cities, intends to tear down industrial buildings and replace them with about 1,500 units, mixed with stores and offices.

• What kept ya? In 2007, Starbucks will open its first store in Placentia.

Chamber of commerce (714) 528-1873

City web site: www.placentia.org